Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, CG, NSCDC
The Peace and Conflicts Unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) says it targets to settle more than 18,000 conflict cases in 2022.
This was disclosed during an annual training on Alternative Peaceful Resolution, organised by the Peace and Conflict Management Department of the Command, on Thursday in Ilorin.
The Resource Person, DSC Ese Rhokaye, revealed that 16,648 conflict cases were handled by NSCDC in the year 2021 and the clashes was not among the cases settled.
Rhokaye further said that NSCDC looked forward to handle more than 18,000 conflict cases in 2022, including clashes and communal clashes.
She said that the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Arebesola, and the Commandant General of NSCDC, Mr Ahmed Abubakar, had insisted that NSCDC officers should work hard to ensure peace in the country.
“We should try as much as possible to settle issues before it escalates, especially at the division offices and this will involve regular training of our officers on peaceful resolution.
“We have plans for 2022 on training of our officers, establishing peace unit, establishing good relation with the community and sanitising the Public Relation Unit, and many more.”
The resource person said the concept of judgment, which involved the agreement arrived after the court sitting, for the parties to meet and settle.
She said that once the agreement was sealed, the parties can no longer reopen the case through any means, that is, looking for another option.
Rhokaye disclosed that Nigeria have 17 states with conflict mediation unit across the 36 states and NSCDC wished to have mediation units in all the 17 states.
“The mediation unit can be achieved through our officers input, that is having good relationship with Ministry of Justice.
“Also through training and retraining on how to settle conflicts among clashes and communal clashes, including cases like marital issues, contract, indebtedness and the likes.”
She said that when there are communal clashes in residential areas, the peace officers of the unit should be carried along.
“We want monthly reports on peace and conflict, and that is why the officers should be ready to gather information.
“We want pictorial and written evidence on the effort that each state and divisional office are doing to sensitise their officers on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Litigation.”
The resource person however explained that ADR was a better option, saying that it is less expensive, involves both parties agreement and does not involve much money.
According to her, litigation on the other hand is strictly legal, involves more money, time and effort, at the same time, it takes a longer period of time to settle, as it involves court ruling.
She said that there was need for a mediation centre in Kwara Command, but it would start with zones and followed by any active state.
“We want to pick additional 300 officers on peace resolution training, to increase the number of successful mediated conflicts and improve presence of trained peace officers at divisional level,” she said.
Earlier, the Kwara Acting Commandant, Mr Gabriel Jonah, urged the participants to listen attentively to the resource person, saying that the training will add value to the lives of Nigeria.
Jonah explained that the lecture on peaceful resolution would help officers resolve public problems by resolving and tackling their issues.
“There are lots of problems people are going through, which makes them desperate for money and that is why most of the cases we are receiving is about breach of trust and breach of agreement,” he said.
He urged the officers to express themselves well to the resource person and ask questions when necessary to justify the aim of the corps in training officers on peace resolution. (
PSM/NAN